Quality of semantic standards is unadressed in current research while there is an explicit need from standard developers. The business importance is evident since quality of standards will have impact on its diffusion and achieved interoperability in practice. An instrument to measure the quality of semantic standards is designed to contribute to the knowledge domain, standards developers and might ultimo lead to improved interoperability. This instrument is iteratively designed with multiple case studies. This paper describes the rationale and research design, just as current status and future plans.